The New Manager (Temp Title)
by UnchainedHeart
Summary: Nakamora Miyako was best friends with Riko growing up. However, she had to move away during middle school and has only gotten the chance to move back recently. Now that she is back and joining up as manager of the basketball team she's caught sight of a guy that fits her description of her perfect man. How exactly will her newest obsession play out? (I hate writing summaries)


Seirin High School.

For a moment after arriving all I could do was stand and stare at the entrance of the school. Dozens of people were rushing from all sides. Every student I saw seemed to be excited, whether it be for the first day of the school year or the club recruitment, I couldn't tell. Even from my position outside the gate I could hear the calls of the second and third years attempting to pull people towards them.

A new start, I thought to myself as I took my first steps into the crowd. Riko was here, things would be different.

It only took me a few moments to cut through the crowd and locate a billboard that laid out the locations of the different recruitment tables. As soon as I found the one I was looking for, I relaxed and ducked back into the crowd. When I neared where the table should be, I pulled myself up onto the tips of my toes and looked over the heads of the other first years.

Locating the petite brunette was rather easy. Riko was sitting behind the basketball recruitment table, talking with a boy in glasses sitting next to her. Riko herself had her ear length hair pulled back by a familiar clip, and was wearing the Seirin's girl uniform, as to be expected.

"Riko~! Riko~! Riko~!" I called out, cupping my hands around my mouth.

My call caught the attention of those walking by me, but apparently not that of the person in question. Annoyed, I waved my hand back and forth as pushed myself through the crowd. I did my best not to lose sight of her, which was pretty easy seeing as I stood a bit taller than most girls my age. At fifteen, I was 5'3", and still growing.

"Riko~!"

When she still didn't look my way, and instead starting talking to some random first year, I stopped moving and stood flat-footed. At the same time, a pout appeared on my lips. It wasn't fair that I kept from visiting her all month just so that I could surprise her, and now I couldn't even catch her attention. With a sigh, I began to push my way through the crowd. Sure, I could have been a bit more graceful about it, and avoided the angry voices raised towards me, but it was easy enough to just ignore them and continue as I was. If they really didn't like me pushing my way through, then they should just make room for me to get by.

Or better yet, they should get Riko's attention for me.

"Riko~!"

As I finally managed to break away from the crowd, I saw that I'd caught her attention this time. Riko's head automatically turned to see who was calling her, and I stopped moving to wait for her reaction.

"Ko?"

A wry smile appeared on my lips at her address, but at the same time I couldn't help but laugh. Her surprised expression was priceless. Just as I'd expected there to be, excitement was in her expression as well. I couldn't help but be thankful that she'd reacted as I'd hoped.

Quickly crossing the little distance left between me and the table, I noted the fact that the boy next to her was one I recognized from the photo of the basketball team that Riko had sent me in one of her letters. Frowning for a moment, I tried, and failed, to recall the glasses boy's name.

Shrugging it off a second later, I launched myself at Riko as soon as I was close enough. She'd stood when she spotted me, which mean she was now sent sprawling on the ground from my attack.

"Hey!" she complained, but instead of shoving me away, she allowed the hug as I'd known she would, although only for a short moment.

As soon as that moment was over, she firmly pushed me away, an amused smile on her face.

"Help me up!"

Laughing, I bowed my head.

"As the princess commands."

As the last word left my mouth, I raised my head and extended my hand. As soon as I firmly had ahold of hers, I stood, pulling both of us up.

"What in the world are you doing here?" Riko demanded as she released my hand so she could straighten out her clothing.

"Well," I began, tucking a strand of my black hair behind my hair, only for it to immediately fall back to it's original spot. "You know how my sister gets nervous when she's alone?"

Riko nodded.

"She has panic attacks."

"Yeah, well, her roommate got tired of her and moved out this summer break, leaving her with no one in the house. Since I didn't like the town or the school I ended up with when I moved, my parents reluctantly agreed to my suggestion, to let me move in with her, at least until she gets a new roommate who can put up with her particularities."

Riko's grin was now as large as the one I was wearing.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Obviously so that I could surprise you."

"Well, it worked," she replied instantly. That amused look was still on her face.

At that moment, glasses boy cleared his throat, drawing our eyes to him.

"Hyuga Junpei," he supplied, looking to be a mixture of amused and slightly annoyed. "I'm guess you two are friends?"

"She was my kohai before she moved three years ago, we were also neighbors back then."

"Nakamora Miyako," I added. "But, as you see, my old friends used to call me Ko. I can't quite remember wh-"

"It's because she's rather childish," Riko interrupted, causing a pout to appear on my lips once again.

"Am not!"

"Point and proof."

I simply glared at her, and she laughed in return. Crossing my arms, I gave her a sour pout as she stepped back around the recruitment table.

"It's not a bad thing to be childish," Hyuga commented.

I simply nodded at him, seeing as I was paying more attention to the fact that Riko looked as if she were about to go back to her coach duties with recruitment and all. Surely she wouldn't tell me to wait till after school to talk…

"I'd love to catch up," she explained as she took her seat. "But we might have to push everything else off till later, when the club recruitment time is over."

My pout grew a bit larger, and I was was about to ask why she couldn't just push it off on whatever basketball boy was the team captain, when I remembered an important fact.

"Actually," I said, grinning. "I have team business, too."

At my words, wariness filled Riko's face.

"You do?"

"I do."

"Don't tell me you plan on dressing up like a boy and joining the team," she guessed, sounding irritatingly serious about it all.

"That was one time! It was also just a street game," I retorted. "Plus, I didn't look much like a girl, then, so it was easy. I'm too much of a girl, now!"

"It was five times, and you don't look any different now than you did then. The team also came within an inch of beating you silly when they found out."

"Details."

"Important details," she grumbled.

"Not important right now," I corrected her, placing myself in the seat across the table. "Right now, I'm not a basketball player… and I do too look more like a girl than I did then! I gained a whole cup size!"

"Ko!"

"What? It's true."

Next to Riko, glasses boy seemed to be having some sort of problem. His face had turned bright red at the most recent turn in the conversation. Riko, on the other hand, took a deep breath.

"You said you had team business that didn't involve you playing?"

"Yup."

Safely away from the bra conversation, I finally saw the curiosity that was expecting begin to dawn in Riko's eyes. It was unavoidable. When we'd been friends before I moved, there wasn't a place I would go outside our neighborhood if it didn't involve some kind of sport.

"What are you wanting, then?" she asked, not following up on her curiosity, much to my relief.

"You're missing a manager, right?"

"No."

There wasn't even an ounce of hesitation in her immediate refusal, and, much to my annoyance, glasses boy looked like he was going to start laughing as a result.

"You didn't even let me finish," I complained. "You also didn't even give it a second's thought!"

"I don't need to."

At that moment, glasses boy, I mean, Hyuga, spoke up.

"What's so bad about the idea?" he asked, immediately earning the effort for me to remember his name. "We could use a manager. It would definitely make your job easier."

Riko shot him a look that probably could have even made me clam up.

"Trust me, it's a bad idea."

I stood up, bracing both my hands on the table. There was no way I was backing down from this.

"Please, Riko? I know basketball, and I need a club where I'll be sure not to get kicked out. You know how protective and obsessive my parents are. One hint that something isn't going right here, and they'll use it as an excuse to drag me back home, whether or not I'm kicking and screaming the entire way. But, if they know that I'm with you, someone they trust, they'll relax more. You're the coach, and you're the one who decides these things, right?"

I saw the hesitation on her face, and quickly made my way to her side of the table. Time to land the final blow.

"Please~ We're friends, aren't we, Riko?" I asked, putting on my most pleading expression. "I came all the way out here just so we could go to school together again. You wouldn't just have me sent back home, would you?"

She was silent for a long moment, then sighed.

"You play dirty."

A delighted smile appeared on my face as I flung my arms around her neck from the side.

"You won't regret it!"

"I already do."

Riko shoved me away as Hyuga held a clipboard towards me.

"Here, just fill this out and give it back to us, and things will be official."

Nodding, I took it from him and sat down right there on the ground between their table and the next. Riko instantly began discussing the number of recruits that she and Hyuga had managed to gather, seeming to easily dismiss the matter of me for the moment. Tuning out their conversation, I focused on filling out the paper.

Just after I'd finished filling in my name and class number, though, I heard their conversation stop.

"The new students are here," I heard a voice announce shakily.

Glancing up from my clipboard, I froze as the sight before me fully registered in my mind.

Standing in front of the basketball table was a giant boy, one I didn't recognize from my photograph, so presumably the new student that the other boy had mentioned. The other boy happened to be held up in the air by his collar, the new kid's hand firmly attached to the piece of clothing.

"Is this the basketball club?" the first year asked.

I glanced at Riko for a second, finding her doing the same thing that I had been doing. It wasn't surprising. The first year was, as I'd said, a giant. He also had bright red hair with a black undertone. His skin was rather tan, although it was probably from time spent playing outside, if his muscular arms were any hint. The expression he had on his face was somewhere between cold and dangerous. In all honesty, everything about the first impression this guy gave me screamed interesting.

"...Yeah," Riko managed to get out.

Without a word, he deposited his burden on the surface of the recruitment table and took his place in the seat I'd been occupying a short time ago. After a second of staring at him, Rico seemed to come to her senses and began talking to him about the team.

"I don't care about that," he said, finishing off the cup of tea they offered all potential players. "Give me a form, I'll just write my name and go."

Surprised, Riko did as asked of her. The boy quickly filled out his information, reminding me that I needed to do the same. As soon as he was done, he stood and started to walk off. At that moment I slid to my knees and placed my form onto her stack.

"Huh?" Riko murmured suddenly, then raised her voice. "You didn't write your goals?"

Curious, I peeked over her shoulder. The boy, Kagami Taiga apparently, had left the entire goal section empty.

"I have none in particular," he replied without turning around. At the same time he crumpled the cup in his hand. "After all, Japanese basketball, it's the same thing everywhere you go."

As he finished speaking, he tossed the cup over his shoulder, sending it flying to the waste basket.

"So cool," I said as the other three people around me just watched him go.

"He's scary! Is that really a first year!?" the one who'd been brought back by his collar exclaimed.

"He's hot," I added.

All eyes simply stared at me in astonishment.

"What?" I demanded, crossing my arms and sitting back on my heels in one smooth motion. "He is!"

"What part of that…" Riko began slowly. "Was hot?"

"Hm… the basket? Also the dragging that guy over there here by his collar. Dangerous is hot, you know. Especially when combined with that height and muscle," I informed them.

As soon as I'd finished speaking, Riko hit me on the back of the head with the paper she was still holding in her hands.

"Ow!"

"You still haven't gotten rid of that habit of yours?" she demanded.

"Nope, and I don't plan on it."

**A/N:** **So, at this point I'm not sure about whether I'm continuing this or not. You see, I can't decide if it's a good idea or not. If people seem to like, it however, I'll continue. It won't have priority over my other story, though. Either way, enjoy your little taste of KnB! Also, I don't have a cover for this... if anyone would like to make one I would love you forever!**


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